Meet Bruce

Bruce Spizer

“Bruce Spizer is the ultimate presenter of the historical phenomenon known as the Beatles.”—Ken Mansfield, first U.S. manager of Apple Records

Bruce Spizer is a first generation Beatles fan and a life-long native of New Orleans, Louisiana. He has an extensive Beatles collection, concentrating primarily on United States, Canadian and British first issue records, record promotional items, press kits and concert posters.

Source: www.nola.com

A “taxman” by day, Bruce is a board certified tax attorney and certified public accountant. A “paperback writer” by night, he is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, TheBeatles’ Story on Capitol Records Parts 1 & 2, The Beatles on Apple Records, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, The Beatles Swan Song: “She Loves You” & Other Records, The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records, and his latest project, The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fans’ Perspective..

Bruce has served as a consultant on several Beatles projects for Capitol Records, EMI, Universal Music Group and Apple Corps, Ltd., including The Capitol Albums Volumes 1 and 2, the 2009 remastered Beatles CD catalog and The U.S. Albums. He wrote the essay contained in the 56-page booklet included with The Capitol Albums Volume 2. Bruce’s articles on the Beatles are featured regularly in magazines such as Beatlefan and Goldmine.

Bruce was eight years old when the Beatles invaded America. He began listening to the radio at age two and was a diehard fan of WTIX, a top forty station in New Orleans that played a blend of R&B music and top pop and rock hits. His first two albums were The Coasters’ Greatest Hits, which he permanently “borrowed” from his older sisters, and Meet The Beatles!, which he still plays on his vintage 1964 Beatles record player.

During his high school and college days, Bruce played guitar in various bands that primarily covered hits of the sixties, including several Beatles songs. Due to the limited range of his baritone voice, his singing was primarily restricted to Ringo songs such as With A Little Help From My Friends. He was allowed to sing Like A Rolling Stone because his band mates didn’t think Bob Dylan had a good voice. He was given the task of singing the Rolling Stones’ Get Off My Cloud because he was the only one who could remember the lyrics.

Bruce Spizer wearing a Beatle wig at the site of the Beatles firstU.S. concert, the Washington Coliseum (at the time a garbage dump).

Although Bruce was the photography editor for the Newman High School yearbook, he decided against a career in photography because he didn’t want to do weddings and bar mitzvahs. He wrote numerous album and concert reviews for his high school and college newspapers, including a review of Abbey Road that didn’t claim Paul was dead. While at Tulane University, he served on the Board of Directors of the Mushroom, which was a highly-successful student-run record store.

Bruce received his B.A. (in economics), M.B.A. (concentrating in marketing and finance) and law degree from Tulane University. Upon graduation, he clerked for a judge at the Louisiana Supreme Court. During his tenure at the Court and for the first part of his legal career, he managed the Cold, which was a pop rock band that dominated the New Orleans music scene in the early eighties. Two of the group’s singles, You and Mesmerized, received extensive airplay on New Orleans’ top rated radio stations, including B-97, WQUE-FM and his childhood favorite, WTIX.

Bruce has had his own law practice for over 30 years, specializing in tax and estate planning and administration. He has given numerous lectures on tax, retirement plans and estate planning matters. In his other life, Bruce is a frequent guest speaker at The Fest for Beatles Fans (the event formerly known as Beatlefest), Abbey Road on the River and other Beatles conventions. He has appeared on numerous national and local television and radio programs as a Beatles historian. Bruce was selected to write the questions for the Beatles edition of the Trivial Pursuit game.

Bruce’s varied interests, background and training have made him uniquely qualified to detail the history of the Beatles vinyl record releases.

Other Articles and links about Bruce

9 Responses

I met Bruce at the 2001 Fest For Beatles Fans, told him how much I liked his books up to the latest (The Beatles on Apple Records); I now have six of the eight, plan to purchase The Beatles are Coming and the new one, Beatles For Sale…all are indispenable books about the Fab’s recordings–all must have (and will have). Great job!

Ken R.

June 6, 2011
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If this book is anything like the set of books he has previously released it will be worth the wait!
A great man for detail and bringing the facts to the reader in an easy readable way!
Great author and has filled a niche that others had not seen!
K.

Gino ( Louis Pacifico)

June 26, 2011
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Hey Bruce,
I consider you an answered prayer. The technical
questions I had about Beatle vinyl as a kid about Capitol albums have been answered through your books. My concentration ran from 1968 – 1974. I can recall my first vinyl experience of the Beatles was in 1968 when I first heard Drive My Car & Good Day Sunshine ring in my ears from a 1968 Magnavox Micromatic Portable Stereo with detachable speakers. What a sound. I never got to see the album covers because I was too short at the time ( 3 years old) but I did see those black labels with the colorband spinning on the magnavox. What a sound coming from that stereo. I fell in love with the Beatle sound that far back. Lady Madonna was probably on the radio at the time but I had to catch up in the following six years. Y & T and Revolver were my first vinyl experiences of the Beatles. Though the White album ended up being my favorite now I had to go back to Love Me Do thru Help and Strawberry FF thru Abbey Road to catch up while following the solo stuff. What a joyous experience. Thanks Bruce for hearing my prayers.

Bruce Spizer

Larry

July 26, 2011
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I first heard about the Beatles and sought out fan magazine articles about them from my late friend Cathye prior to their first US appearances on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Bought the first singles and Capitol albums, then discovered the VeeJay and Swan/Tollie discs at a grocery store record bin and bought all those, too. Many years later I got serious about collecting and now own first pressings of all their albums and most of their singles, which I was able to confirm thanks to you previous book Beatles American Records. Now I await the Parlophone book to confirm the authenticity of my copy of Please, Please Me as a UK Mono/first. Your work has made me a local authority on record collecting, and I consider it the best resource available. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Dan in Denver

July 28, 2011
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Bruce and Frank: My apologies, I forgot to mention Frank Daniels on the other blog. You BOTH did an outstanding job on the Parlophone book. I am the type that WILL be reading it from cover to cover. Should only take 2 days because all your books are just too hard to put down. I will be awaiting the next book.

Dan

David Newhouse

September 13, 2011
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As the drummer in Bruce’s high school band and one of the friends he got more than a little help from, I’d just like to say that Bruce actually had a pretty decent voice (unlike me) – tho he was a better rhythm guitarist. But while we were fellow Beatle fanatics in high school, Bruce already put me to shame. How badly? In our senior year, I was on our school’s team for a high school TV trivia show. Bruce was in the audience. One audio question was, “Which one of the Beatles sings this song?” What with the lights and the pressure and all, I heard the guitar intro, the word “I” and buzzed. “George Harrison,” I said. “Right!” the host said in amazement. After the show, Bruce came up to me and said (with a smile) “What took you so long!” The song was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and the thing was, he was right. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gotten it during the opening bars. Bruce would have. Of course, now he’d not only know the song – he’d know the date, the time, the take, the mix, and probably the brand of Clapton’s cigarette when he recorded the solo.

Stephen

December 12, 2016
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I met Bruce @ Beatle Fest 2009 Chicago when I bought his 4th book,”The Beatles on Apple” which he autographed. I just bought the sister book,”The Beatles solo on Apple” this month, & it arrived quickly & in excellent shape. I haven’t been able to put it down yet…….
I just wish I would’ve bought,”The Beatles on Vee Jay” when I had a chance, a few yrs. ago, now you can’t hardly get it unless you pay some serious money. These books are fantastic!
thanks,
Big Steve